Havre Chamber job fair connects employers and workers

Havre Area Chamber of Commerce held a job fair for its members Tuesday afternoon, an effort to draw job seekers and employers looking to fill positions into one place and hopefully get local candidates matched up with places they'd like to work and which need their help.

The Chamber planned the job fair to be as simple, easy and quick as possible, telling applicants to bring multiple generic job applications and resumes and businesses to conduct interviews on the spot where applicable.

Among the local businesses there was Bergren Transmission and Auto Care which, like many similar businesses in Montana and the U.S., was looking mostly for technicians.

Bergren Transmission Owner Steve Neiffer said the technician shortage nationwide is a result of a few things, one of which is that fewer and fewer people are going into the trades, and this, combined with the increasing complexity of the job, has made good candidates harder to find.

Neiffer said cars these days are just more complicated pieces of machinery to work on, especially with their internal computers and software, which now requires technicians to know more to effectively work on them.

"You can't just grab a set of wrenches and work on a car anymore," he said.

He said he's had a few solid candidates interview in his time at the fair, but they were entry level applicants and would need some development.

Regardless, Neiffer said he's glad the Chamber is doing this and he hopes to come to future events like this as well.

He said he's always meant to go to Montana State University-Northern's job fair, and now that he knows a bit more about how they work he's anxious to go.

While many smaller local businesses were at the event some of the area's larger institutions, including Northern, were among those at the fair looking to recruit. The Hill County Sheriff's Office had a booth where they showed off some of the weapons and equipment they use, including a shotgun.

Another employer was Havre Public Schools which is still looking for teachers, substitutes and others including bus drivers and paraprofessionals.

Assistant Superintendent Brad Moore said bus drivers and paraprofessionals are big needs they are looking to fill at the moment.

"We're always short on those," Moore said.

He said the schools are in better shape than last year when it comes to math teachers, which was a big issue during the pandemic but seems to have lessened recently. They are, however, still looking for teachers.

Unfortunately, Moore said, things at the fair had been slow for them so far.

He said attendance to the fair was about what he expected, but in the first hour and a half of the three-hour event they didn't see a huge number of potential applicants.

Another major local institution at the fair was Northern Montana Health Care, which seems to have had more luck than HPS.

Vice President of Regulatory and Community Services Christen Obresley said they are hiring for a variety of positions at the moment and they were seeing some promising people show up.

Obresley said they aren't just looking for doctors or nurses, and have positions available in environmental services, nutrition services as well as other positions like an optician.

Among those at the fair looking for work was Havre resident Jason Keller, who has a job at Taco John's but has been looking for something else for a while.

"Just seeing if there's anything better," Keller said.

He said he was mostly just browsing at that point, and none of the booths were jumping out at him just yet, but he's definitely looking for something on the technology side.

Another attendee was Kayla Woods, who said she was interested in jobs at a few booths she had seen, but was working up the courage to talk to them, fearing that she wasn't really qualified for what they were offering.

Despite her nervousness, Woods said, she's glad events like this are happening, especially for young people like her who are tired of how impersonal job hunting online can be.

"I'm nervous, but this is way better," she said.